UNITED NATIONS,
July 13 – Days
after UN
cholera
victims told
Inner City
Press in Haiti that
the "community
projects" UN
Secretary
General
Antonio Guterres described
to the
Press would be
useless to
them, Guterres'
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric
dodged
questions
about what
the victims
said, from
Inner City Press. This
while Guterres
is recruiting
a "victims'
advocate" - on
every issue
except those
the UN killed?
Video here.
On July
13 a General
Assembly resolution
was passed,
one that still
does not ensure
any individual
restitution to
families
injured, with
death, by the
UN's cholera.
In introducing
the
resolution, Jamaica's
Ambassador
said "The
crisis spawned
by the
introduction
and spread of
cholera in
Haiti, which
stemmed from
the actionsand
inactions of
the United
Nations, is
not one to
which we can
turn a blind
eye. It stands
starkly as astain
against the
good name of
the United
Nations." This
on a day that
in US Federal
Court, where
the UN
insisted on
immunity for
its cholera,
the way the UN
was bribed and
bought by Macau-based
businessman Ng
Lap Seng was
made even
clearer - and
Duajrric refused
to answer
Inner City Press'
questions
about it. On
Haiti,without
Dujarric
announcing it,
the UN has
quietly
disclosed yet
another case
of sexual
abuse,
alleged
against UN
Police from Bangladesh. @InnerCityPress
tweeted photo
here.As
noted, there
is also yet
another case
in the Central
African Republic
against a
peacekeeper
for "the Congo."
But
while Inner
City Press
asked Antonio
Guterres' two
top spokesman
about this on
July 2, "of
the two new
sexual
exploitation
and abuse
complaints on
the website,
please explain
why the one in
Haiti is being
investigated
by OIOS, while
the most
recently
listed one in
CAR is not," the one
line answer
given was only
to defer
disclosing
where Guterres
was (Lisbon),
with NOTHING
about the
new UN
child sexual
abuse in Haiti.
Even the Congo
CAR case, the
UN answered on
over the
weekend: "On
Saturday, a UN
spokesperson
confirmed that
a new
allegation had
been
registered
against the
Congolese but
declined to
clarify if the
recorded case
of sexual
exploitation
took place
before or
after the
stated
withdrawal of
the battalion.
'The
allegation was
recorded in
June [...] an
investigative
process has
been launched
as per
standard
procedures,'
Sophie Boudre,
a spokesperson
for Department
of
Peacekeeping
operations" told
AJE. So the UN
only answers
some media.
Or, only some
part of the UN
- pointedly
NOT Antonio
Guterres' main
spokespeople -
answer, even
on Haiti.Where
is Guterres
on this?
Nowhere - on
July 5, after
being back at the
UN for less
than a day, Guterres
left again. In
the interim
his Security
targeted Inner
City Press and
it was banned
from staking
out his
"reform" speech,
here.
And
his holdover
spokesman
Dujarric had no
answer at
noon, nor by
six pm
afterward.
From the UN transcript:
I'd asked and
your deputy by
mail just a
couple of
times, it has
to do with the
new sexual
exploitation
and abuse
allegations in
the
database.
And what I
wanted to know
is, one of
them is in
Haiti and says
child, the
alleged
perpetrators
from
Bangladesh,
and it says 'pending,
OIOS
investigation.'
The other one
is in the
Central
African
Republic by
the Congo,
presumably
Republic of
Congo, no OIOS
[Office of
Internal
Oversight
Services]
listed.
Is there some…
what's the
reason that
some
allegations
are
investigated
by OIOS?
And can you
provide,
particularly
in the case of
the Congo one,
given the
repatriation,
when did it
occur?

Spokesman:
"We'll try to
get you a bit
more
details.
We're
obviously,
we're being as
transparent as
possible
putting these
allegations up
as soon as
they, as they
occur.
As you know,
there is a
procedure
where we ask
the country to
send an
investigative,
to help us
with the
investigation.
I'll send you…
I'll give you
more details
as soon as I
have them." Past
7 pm, after
Inner City
Press reported
the exchange
Duajrric's
office sent
this: "In
response to
your question
at the noon
briefing, we
refer you to
this page
which provides
further
information on
investigations
into
allegations:
https://conduct.unmissions.org/enforcement-investigationsRegarding
the
allegations on
an alleged
incident in
the Central
African
Republic which
you asked
about, we are
awaiting the
results of the
investigation."
The site
intones, "It
is important
that
investigations
into
allegations of
possible
misconduct are
thorough and
conducted in a
timely manner,
with
sensitivity to
any potential
victims.
Investigations
can be carried
out by the UN
Office of
Internal
Oversight
Services
(OIOS) or
investigative
entities in
the mission,
including the
Special
Investigation
Unit (SIU),
Military
Police, United
Nations Police
and ad-hoc
panels." But
this doesn't
explain why
the Haiti case
is under OIOS
and the other
under... no one? On
June 30 Inner
City Press
asked
Dujarric, UN
transcript here: Inner
City Press: in
the Council,
there was the
report
on the
Council's
visit to
Haiti. [Periscope here.]
And the issue
of cholera
came up.
The
re-investor
reported, I
guess, what
was heard
inside the
meeting.
Outside the
meeting was…
things were…
were spicier
still in terms
of the UN, you
know, not
living up to
what people
believe was
said.
I've seen a
picture of
Josette
Sheeran
briefing, I
guess, at the
Canadian
Mission.
Is it possible
in early July
to get her
here to
describe what
her work's
going to be
and…

Spokesman:
We can see
what we can
do.

Inner
City Press: to
your
knowledge, has
anything been
raised or does
she have a
position on
individual
reparations? [@InnerCityPress
also asked on
Twitter, here.]

Spokesman:
We'll see what
we can do.

Past 4 pm,
nothing, even as
approved
peacekeeping
mission
budgets were
still being
withheld. On
June 28 Inner
City Press
asked Dujarric
if Guterres'
supposedly
"new" approach to the
cholera the UN
brought to
Haiti meant he
will continue
to seek
impunity. From
the UN transcript:
at
least two
federal court
cases about
the UN having
introduced
cholera to
Haiti.
In this case
that's in
Brooklyn,
where they're
arguing that…
that the UN
essentially
waived the
immunities
that it's
claiming by
having a
mechanism to
deal with
negligence,
which I think
most people
would say this
was, as
opposed to
intentional,
is there
anything in
the new
Secretary-General's
new approach
to cholera
that will be
reflected in a
response, or
is it the UN's
continuing
response that
it bears no
legal
responsibility
at all?

Spokesman:
Our legal
position is
unchanged.
The UN's
effort as
outlined by
the
Secretary-General
is focusing on
preventing the
spread or
resurgence of
cholera in
Haiti and
helping
communities in
a first
instance.

Inner
City Press:
And what's the
status of his
discussions
with countries
about the $40
million that…?

Spokesman:
I've nothing
more to say
than what the
Secretary-General
himself
announced.

From
the UN's June 27
transcript:
Inner City
Press: in
Haiti, as the
Security
Council made
its trip,
various people
approached
the… the Press
that was part
of the trip
and said very
clearly that
they
interpreted
what Amina
Mohammed and
Mr. [António]
Guterres had
said as a
retrenchment,
as a stepping
back from the
idea of
possible
individual
reparations
that was in
the November
2016 report by
thenSecretaryGeneral
Ban
Ki-moon.
And one
gentleman, 57
years old, who
has had
cholera and
his spouse
died, said:
"Community
projects are
useless to me,
do nothing for
me." And
I wanted to
understand
more
clearly,
Farhan [Haq]
ended up
saying that
there's still
some
consideration
of
individual
reparations.
That's not
really the way
that I read what
the Secretary
General said.
What is the
current
thinking of
the
Secretary-General
on attempting
to make at
least some
type of
reparatory
payment to
people whose
relatives got
cholera and
died and have
to educate
their
children?

Spokesman:
First of all,
our hearts go
out to all the
people who
suffered from
the cholera
epidemic,
either
personally or
through the
loss of loved
ones. I
think the
Secretary-General
and the Deputy
Secretary-General
were very
clear in
outlining the
way
forward.
The focus will
be initially
on
community-based
projects, and
we're taking
things one
step at a
time.
But, I can't
really go any
further than
what the
Secretary-General
himself said.

Inner
City Press:
But, he seemed
to say that
individual was
not being
considered.

Spokesman:
Things are
progressing.
We're taking
things one
step at a
time.

So
what
has been the
United
Nations' real
impact on
Haiti? There
will be longer
answers to
that questions
- watch this
site - but for
now a
vignette.
After two days
of speed
meetings with
the President,
parliamentarians,
police
trainers,
proud
peacekeepers
from India and
Brazil, some
civil society
reps followed
by businessmen
with flash
drives, a UN
bus raced over
ragged streets
on June 24.

Inside,
European
staffers of
the UN's
MINUSTAH
mission
fretted about
the addition
of a vague
paragraph
about the
cholera the UN
brought in a
statement soon
to read out at
the MINUSTAH
Logistics
Base. Outside
the bus,
Haitians
pushing heavy
cartloads of
fruit, riding
in in backs of
pickup trucks
pushed ot the
side by the UN
convoy, stared
out, some in
anger. The
Press, along
for the ride,
heard
the day before
from residents
of Cite Soleil
who lost
relatives to
the cholera
the UN
brought, with
criminally
negligent
inattention to
sanitation for
troops brought
in from a
cholera
hot-spot in
Nepal, who got
cholera
themselves.
“The UN has to
pay for this,”
one said.
“What good
would a
community
plaza be fore
me?” But it is
community
projects that
new UN
Secretary
General
Antonio
Guterres is
offering, as
he told Inner
City Press
back in UN
headquarters.
The Security
Council
delegation
that visited
Haiti June
22-24 repeated
over and over
they support
the Secretary
General's
“new”
approach. But
what is new
about it?
We'll have
more on
this.
When the UN
Security
Council
visited
Haiti's
Presidential
Palace on
Thursday, they
heard about
the cholera
the UN
brought,
specifically
that the $40
million
remaining in
the MINUSTAH
mission's
budget should
remain behind.
On Saturday
morning, the
Security
Council's
president for
June Sasha
Sergia
Llorentty
Soliz held a
press
conference at
the MINUSTAH
mission's
"Log-Base."
Periscope
video here.
Inner City
Press asked
him about the
UN cholera
victims it has
spoken with
the day
before, who
said that the
UN must pay
individual
reparations,
not community
project that
are of no use
to them. He
said that
messages had
been heard. We
will follow up
on this in New
York - and in
Haiti on the
intimidation
and
under-payment
of judges. The
Security
Council got a
briefing from
India's Assam
Rifles,
complete with
a slide about
the unit's
history in Sri
Lanka. (More
on that to
follow).
Outside,
rifles and
riot
suppression
equipment was
displayed. A
short bus ride
led to the
Brazilian
camp, fruit
juices and
what felt like
the wrap up of
the visit.
Should UN
peacekeeping
contingents
buy more of
what they use
from the
countries they
deploy to?
More on this
to follow,
too. Back on
Friday when
the Security
Council met at
the country's
Cour de
Cassation,
invitee
Massillon told
them and then
the Press that
some judges in
Haiti can't
even afford
any law books,
work
surrounded by
garbage and
are subject to
intimidation
and
corruption.
Another
invitee told
Inner City
Press that
while
Massillon
"said what had
to be said,"
he had
offended UN
Envoy Sandra
Honore with
his criticism
of MINUSTAH's
performance.
Who will head
MINUJUSTH? (In
a bad joke,
some call it
Mini-Jupe or
mini-skirt, as
some in the
Congo have
ajudge MONUSCO
to be
MONUSELESS.)
We are putting
Massillon's
and a
colleague's
later audio up
on
sound-cloud;
Inner City
Press asked
again about
Haitian
judges' paltry
salaries.
Earlier on
Friday there
was a protest
while the
Security
Council met
with the
"private
sector." A bus
full of UN
cholera
victims was
pressured to
leave - but
then returned,
along with
advocate Mario
Joseph, and
spoke with the
Press. Long
Periscope with
Mario Joseph
near the end here;
second
Periscope
turned into
YouTube here.
Uniformly, the
call was for
individual
reparations.
Of a 57 year
old victim who
can now barely
walk it was
asked, what
good would a
community
plaza do for
him? But that
is what the
UN, when Inner
City Press
last asked, is
offering. Done
with the
private
sector, the
Security
Council drove
a short way to
the Cour de
Cassation. The
UN stands for
justice?
Cholera was
less pointedly
raised after
the meeting
with President
Moise by his
acting (for a
day?) foreign
minister, and
was the
subject of the
sole
questioner
allowed.
Video here.
Friday
when after a
closed door
meeting with
Parliamentarians
- the Army
came up, wit
the US - the
Security
Council had
lunch with
invited civil
society
members, there
was a place
set for
cholera
advocate Mario
Joseph, next
to Camille
Chalmers. At
first he
wasn't there,
and those
who'd
specifically
invited him
wondered why.
Then he rolled
in. But the
Press was
already told
to wait
outside, under
a beautiful
red flowering
tree, and wait
for the
"private
sector" to
arrive.
Earlier on
Friday, the
Security
Council drove
uphill to the
Parc de
Martissant and
each placed a
white rose at
the earthquake
memorial.
FOKAL
President Ms
Duvivier
brought up the
UN's cholera
and how little
money the UN
has raised;
the artist Ms.
Monnin
explained her
hanging heads
of concrete
and metal,
with shattered
mirrors on
top. It spoke
for itself. A
small drone
buzzed
overhead. At
the Council's
next meeting,
the Press was
not even left
in for five
minutes.
Earlier the
delegation was
escorted
(run-up
Periscope here)
to the Haitian
National
Police School,
where just as
a meeting
including the
Prime Minister
began, the
Press was
ushered out.
For now,
tweeted photo
here. In
the School
courtyard,
roosters could
be heard
crowing, and
cadets singing
during
training.
"Vous est
journaliste?"
a man asked,
hand on his
sidearm. Oui,
je suis
journaliste.
Nothing yet on
cholera,
except finally
some talk of
new UN
(part-time)
envoy Josette
Sheeran and
her past.
We'll have
more on
this.
On this too: in the MINUSTAH
mission the talk is of
re-applying for posts in the
new, smaller MINUJUSTH
replacement set to start
October 16, 2017. The UN's
presence become routinized.
There is a former star of the
UN Budget Committee, now
working on political affairs;
there's Security from other
Security Council trips - one
in which a UN Security officer
fired a bullet inside the UN
plane, leaving Ambassadors and
the press on a bus ride from
Goma to Kigali in Rwanda.
There are long-time UN
communications people and
ex-pat journalists. There is a
dismissive or perhaps
fatalistic view of those
Haitians protesting the UN's
presence and impact. Then
there are Haitians striving,
setting up small businesses in
nooks and crannies by the side
of the road, while French
business people fly in for
contracts, assisted by their
country's ambassador Elisabeth
Beton, who spoke June 22 on TV
Metropole about Bollore, Total
and Suez. What is the UN's
role in this? After the June
22 meeting, Haiti's acting
foreign minister spoke on
cholera, that the $40 million
unspent by MINUSTAH should
remain in-country. But will
it? In the UN Budget Committee
there's talk against it, as a
bad precedent. Wasn't bringing
cholera, and then denying it
for six years, a worse
precedent? Sui generis.
Earlier on Thursday morning,
the country's booming voiced
Ambassador to the UN was at
the airport to greet the
Council members. Protests,
too, awaited - although
MINUSTAH staff, and a
Haiti-based European
journalist, mocked the protest
as small. In the minibus
that took the Council members
up into the hills to the Royal
Oasis Hotel, the talk was of
the wind-down of the MINUSTAH
mission, begun after the
ouster of President Aristide
in 2004, of access for
interpreters but barely - five
minutes at each meeting? - for
the press. a
meeting was
held with the
UN Country
Team.
The Press was
ushered about
amid generic
statistics
from the
Deputy SRSG. Civil
society, however, has been
chiming in with the Press.
When UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres held a press
conference on June 20, Inner
City Press about the UN having
brought cholera to Haiti under
his predecessor Ban Ki-moon
but now reneging even on what
Ban belatedly proposed for
individual reparations. Inner
City Press mentioned upcoming
protests in Haiti that it will
be covering from there, June
22 and 23, accompanying the UN
Security Council mission which
took off from JFK airport
early on June 22. Photo here,
Periscope video here.
Guterres announced that he was
just then - minutes later the
announcement went out - naming
as a new special envoy on
Haiti Josette Sheeran,
formerly the director of the
UN World Food Program and now
the head of the Asia Society.
Video here.
Transcript here.
He seemed to say the UN was
never going to compensate
individuals or families
impacted by the cholera the UN
brought. And the demands are
for more than that: here's a
sample list, in advance of the
protest(s): "1. Close the
MINUSTAH acknowledging its
failure
2. Cancel the MINUJUSTH
articulated following the ques
Chapter 7 is a contradiction
with the mandate defined
3. re-articulate globally the
concept of relations between
the UN and Haiti and
especially among Latin
American countries and Haiti.
Recalling the generous
internationalist commitment of
the founders of our country
and concrete, substantial and
decisive solidarity offered to
Miranda and Simon Bolivar
4. Launch a process of
compensation, justice and
reparation contemplating the
numerous victims and
destruction caused by this
military occupation of 13
years.
5. Compensate victims of rape,
men, women and children were
raped or processes used in
sexual exploitation
6. Support the thousands of
women who have babies and
children / children without
parents because soldiers and
police of MINUSTAH left
without parents assume their
responsibilities without
leaving their addresses
7. compensate the families of
citizens / citizens killed by
the introduction of cholera by
Nepalese MINUSTAH troops.
We're talking about at least
20,000 bodies (the official
figure underestimated speaks
of nearly 10,000 dead)
8. Compensate survivors were
infected by cholera by but did
not die but their lives were
severely affected (we're
talking about more than
800,000 people)
9. To compensate the country
for the huge economic losses
caused by the presence of
cholera during these long 7
years.
10. Invest to universalize
access to drinking water for
the entire population
11. To strengthen the system
of public health and
sanitation." On June 21 Inner
City Press asked Guterres'
deputy spokesman Farhan Haq to
clarify. UN
Video here,
from Minute
16:21. From
the UN transcript:
Inner City Press: this was
something that the
Secretary-General said on the
record when I asked him about
the seeming change in the
cholera in Haiti plan.
And he said that that policy
was announced by his
predecessor and had two
dimensions; one is fighting
cholera, and the other is the
possibility to support
communities impacted. It
was devised not as individual
support. And just, since
then, I went back and actually
looked at the November
A/71/620 document, and there’s
a whole section on individual
support. It was called
track 2B. So I just
wanted to--

Deputy Spokesman: And I
was here at the time.
And I remember the discussions
that the former
Secretary-General, Ban
Ki-moon, had about this.
And, at that point, it was not
determined whether it would be
individual or
community-based. Even at
that point, I believe the
discussion was towards
community-based. So
that’s something that’s… a
process that’s been crafted.

Inner City Press: I wish
I’d had that document in front
of me when he answered,
because there are many people
that are in Haiti that have
seen the new announcement made
by Amina Mohammed as a
retrenchment, as a taking back
of that before even consulting
people. Mario Joseph and
others have put out a press
release; they’re protesting on
Thursday. So I wanted to
just get your quote before
that protest, that at one time
the idea of individual
reparations to people harmed
by cholera was in a UN
document as being considered
and it’s now not being
considered at all?

Deputy Spokesman: I
wouldn’t say that it’s not
being considered at all.
And I wouldn’t say that
initially it was something
that was devised as the
primary idea. This is
something that’s been under
consideration. It
remains under consideration,
but the primary focus, for
reasons that were described at
the end of last year and again
at the start of this year,
have been
community-based. And if
you look at what Ban Ki-moon
said in December, again, it
mentions the community-based
approach.

But the UN
document in November 2016 has a
Track 2B, individual. Here's the
beginning of the press release
for the protests:
"Port-au-Prince: Haitian cholera
victims and their advocates
called on the UN Security
Council to deliver on the
promise of a new,
victim-centered approach to
cholera during its visit to
Haiti this week, by meeting
directly with victims and
committing to funding the $400
million initiative before
MINUSTAH --the peacekeeping
mission that caused the cholera
epidemic—pulls out in October.
'The UN’s apology and promises
were promising in December,'
said Mario Joseph, Managing
Attorney of the Bureau des
Avocats Internationaux (BAI)
that has led the fight for
justice for cholera victims.
'But seven months later, with
only a pittance raised for the
so-called "New Approach" and not
a single promised consultation
with the cholera victims, they
look like empty public relations
gestures. It is time for the UN
to deliver.' The 15-member
Security Council is in Haiti
from June 22-24 to finalize the
transition from MINUSTAH to a
new mission focused on
supporting justice that will be
known as MINUJUSTH. The BAI
announced two protests during
the visit: one at the UN
logistics base in Haiti on
Thursday at 11 am, and a second
one in Champs de Mars on Friday
at 11." We'll have more on this:
Inner City Press will be
accompanying and covering, in as
much detail as possible, the UN
Security Council's visit to
Haiti from June 22 to 24. Watch
this site.

Footnote: on behalf
of the Free
UN Coalition for Access,
to which Guterres' spokesman
Stephane Dujarric does NOT "lend"
the briefing room and which has
never and will never ask for a
journalist to be thrown
out or restricted, Inner
City Press urged Guterres to
more routinely take questions,
for example on his way in and
out of the Security Council.
We'll see.